Body composition and somatotype youth football players in different categories

The objectives of present study were: to describe and comparing the body composition and somatotype profile of football athletes grouped by categories (Under-15, Under-17, Under-19); and to describe the percentage of occurrence frequency athletes, grouped by categories, in different classifications of somatotype proposed by literature. The sample was composed by 99 male soccer athletes, with ages between 14 and 19 years old. To describe the body composition (fat mass, thin mass and fat percentage) was measured total corporal mass, stature, triceps and subscapular skinfolds variables. For somatotype (endomorphy, mesomorphy and ectomorphy) was measured supraspinal and medial calf skinfolds; humerus and femur bone breadths; calf and arm tensed girths; beyond the mentioned variables for body composition. All data was tabulated and treated in Microsoft Office Excel and SPSS for Windows 13.0 version. In summary, the results show that total corporal mass, stature and thin mass increase in athletes with the progression of under-15 category to under-17 and under-19 categories. In fat percentage the athletes' keeps your values in 11% being this percentage considered excellent to high performance. In somatotype components of under-17 and under-19 athletes, the classification meso-ectomorph had more occurrence; and in athletes of under-15 category, the ecto-mesomorphy still it's prevalent.